"Radio 3" and "chart countdown" aren't phrases that usually appear in the same sentence. But – hold on to your hats! – from next week, In Tune, Sean Rafferty's drivetime show, and Breakfast will feature top tunes from the hit parade. Don't hold your breath for Lady Gaga or Cheryl Cole over your cornflakes. Instead, Radio 3 will play hits from the top 20 of the official Specialist Classical Chart. This poll was launched last year as a way to create a classical chart that had some musical credibility, rather than another list stuffed with the ersatz croonings of La Jenkins and Il Divo, compilations of soothing classical massage-music, or soundtracks by Hans Zimmer. The chart's rules are strict – no compilations and no film music.

Going by this week's lineup, there's little to scare the horses of the Radio 3 old guard both within Broadcasting House and among the listening millions. Mackerras's Mozart, Hough's Chopin, Chailly's Bach and Kaufmann's Schubert are all there, proving that recordings of serious repertoire in serious performances can still shift a few units (even if there's also some pompous Jon Lord orchestral tracks at No 4).

However, there is a canker in the apple. Sitting atop the chart, in all his flaxen-haired, ruff-enruffled glory, is André Rieu's Forever Vienna, a musical concoction of purest kitsch, in which arrangements of Strauss waltzes are subjected to the Rieu treatment, a ludicrous, nostalgic resurrection of the bloated corpse of Viennese imperialism. And by a Dutchman, too. In Tune is duty-bound to play the No 1 on Mondays, so you may have to endure a roulade of Rieu as you're negotiating the M1 next week, but at least on Breakfast, Rob Cowan and Sara Mohr-Pietsch will have their pick of the rest of the chart. So tune in, pop-pickers, for Radio 3's take on the chart show, starting next week. And pray that Rieu gets knocked off the top of the chart, fast.